Five Nights at Freddy’s Movie Confirmed, Poltergeist Director Attached

As a sign of just how ingrained Five Nights at Freddy’s has already become in popular culture (he says after four games have been released), it’s recently been announced that it will be adapted for the big screen.

The director of the Poltergeist remake, Gil Kenan, will take the helm for the Warner Bros production. It’s unclear whether or not series creator Scott Cawthon will have any involvement with the live adaptation in some capacity, but a producer role is a smart bet.

If you have ever wandered onto YouTube and searched for “scary games lol”, you will have almost definitely witnessed the jump scare excellence of Freddy’s already. It’s almost a ritual for “Let’s Play”-ers or gaming vloggers to cover the series and to show themselves screaming in terror in the process. It’s a polarising series which sees some criticism for depending on jump scares whereas others have lauded it for revitalising an entire genre. Personally, I think they will have to go out of their way to mess up the live adaptation as its concept almost guarantees effective horror.

For the unfamiliar, Five Nights at Freddy’s is a linear horror game in which you’re hired to guard a pizza restaurant in the dead of night with only malicious teddy bears for company. Controls are restrictive, meaning that you never really feel like you’re in control and it is admittedly terrifying to feel so helpless. It was more of the same for another two games until Five Nights at Freddy’s 4, the final release in the franchise, revitalised proceedings by moving the jump scares to a young child’s bedroom.

No release date has been confirmed for the film as it’s still in early pre-production. Director Gil Kenan will write the script with Tyler Burton Smith. Roy Lee (The Ring, The Grudge, Godzilla) and Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer, Beetlejuice) will produce with David Katzenberg, Adam Stone and Jay Ireland executive producing.